martedì 28 maggio 2013

Pummarò

Juice, coulis, paste, sauce, ice cream, sorbet, jam, sun-dried, confit, gratin, as soup or gaspacho, in a salad, as cocktail, stuffed or to bite one after the other in their perfect balance between sweet and sour!

I love red, I love tomatoes!

Tomato arrived in Europe from America thanks to the Spanish conquistador, Hernán Cortés, in 1540 and nowadays Italy is one of the top ten tomato producers with several protected geographical indications (PGI) and protected designation of origin (PDO) from the European Union regulation No 1151/2012. It is the product excellence of our Made in Italy.

There are around 7500 tomato varieties, divided mainly on shape and size. Some varieties are mostly used for sauces and paste as the grape or the plum tomato while the cherry and the beefsteak for fresh salad. They are full of powerful natural antioxidants (lycopene), vitamins and beta carotenes.
They are the fruit of summer but as an English journalist, Miles Kington, said: "Knowledge is knowing the tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting in your fruit salad".

Here below my suggestion for your dishes:

1 Pomodoro San Marzano, big red oblong shaped. The name San Marzano designates the area of growth for which they have a PGI label. They are the best tinned plum tomatoes and by far the best choice for sauces and mainly for pizza topping.
When you buy your can, be sure that the tomatoes come from Sarno and its neighborhood in the province of Salerno.

2 Pomodoro Piccadilly, big red oval shaped, good for any sort of dish.

3
Pomodoro Ciliegino, small red cherry tomato. They are good for salad,
sauce and jam. The bestcherry tomatoes
comes from Pachino (Sicily) and they have a PGI label. The Pachino tomato can also
be a red or green grape tomato and a green beefsteak.

Pomodoro del Piennolo, small red oblong grape tomato. It grows around Mont Vesuvius and has a PDO (protected designation of origin) label. They are picked in mid-June (for this reason they are not on my picture) and held all together by a string to be kept home for winter. They are very good for sauces and pizza.